Lunaverse Episode 3-Longest Night, Longest Day Part 3
Corona's blank eyes widened a little in surprise at Luna's statement. "Sister, wherefore art thou calling me by such a false title? Hath a thousand years slowed thy memory?" She chuckled. "Celestia, dear sister, though I recall that thou wouldst call me Tia in thy more endearing moments – "
"You are not my sister!" Luna exclaimed as she moved, charging forward with horn flaring with magic, wings spreading wide as she leapt for Corona. The white alicorn's own horn glowed as Luna did so, however, and the Princess of the Moon was seized in a white aura and thrown to the ground, with force that would have shattered any other pony's bones.
Corona's eyes had narrowed, as she spread her wings wide. "Ah," she intoned as she began walking forward. Tiny flames would spark to life and then die beneath her hooves with each step she took. "I see that thou remain resentful of my power and rightful station. I had hoped that the millenium I have spent imprisoned hath been but a mistake on thy part, but it seems thy treacherous nature remains."
"How did you escape?" Luna demanded, as she struggled to rise. Corona's magic flared, however, keeping the princess firmly pressed to the ground beneath her as she leaned close to the darker alicorn, a sad look on her face.
"Luna…my poor, covetous sister…I am the sun. I am the elder, the rightful ruler of the earth. Thou hast great power, but I am power, the burning fires of creation itself. Thou couldst never overcome me without the corrupted Elements of Harmony, and even with them, thou couldst do naught but seal me away for a time."
Corona withdrew from her sister, wings still spread wide. "A thousand years is not so long a period, Luna, for beings such as we. 'Twas but the barest moment to mine eyes, and it took no more than that moment to break thy prison locks. Locks I had not dared to believe, however, that thou intended to make permanent."
Corona began walking in circles around Luna, eyes still focused upon her. "No. I had hoped that thou wouldst see reason. That thou wouldst understand that I was meant to reign over the day and the night. I am wiser. I am stronger. I am the sun. But thou hast a place in my realm, sister, if thou wouldst only see fit to remove the veil of jealousy from thy sight! I admit to not having thy creative spark, thine artistic abilities. Thy nights are far more beautiful than any I could ever construct, and it would warm my heart to have thee yet manage them in my name. Thou wouldst even retain thy title of Princess, for it belongs to thee by right – as the title of Queen is mine, as is the land of Equestria and all who inhabit it."
Corona stopped pacing around Luna, coming to stop directly in front of her and tucking her wings back against her body. The white alicorn's horn flared with magic once more, lifting Luna up, placing her on her hooves in front of her. Corona took several steps backwards, and the aura around Luna disappeared as Corona's head raised slightly, and she extended one long foreleg. "Kneel before thy Queen, sister. Kiss my hoof and swear obedience, and we shall consign all this to the realm of unpleasant memories and dwell upon the matter no further."
Luna's horn flared with magic, but Corona, once more, was the faster. Luna was again wrapped in white magic and forced to her knees before she could launch even a single spell. Corona, for her part, seemed hardly surprised, only disappointed. "Unfortunate," she observed. "But perhaps a thousand years of ruling alone hath only heightened thine arrogant presumption. Very well! I shall have to take more extreme measures with thee."
Corona spread her wings wide, as Luna continued to fight in vain against her arcane bonds. The white alicorn's horn began to glow brightly. "Thou art treacherous, covetous, and in all ways unbecoming of a sister of the Queen of Equestria!" Corona proclaimed. "And so, though it pains me greatly to do so, I am forced, for the good of Equestria, to banish thee from the land! Thine exile shalt be for a term of not less than one thousand and one years, and the site of thine exile shall be the moon itself! Thou shalt for a millennium look down upon the earth and see the glory that I, Celestia, bring to it!" A comforting look appeared on Corona's face, an utterly alien expression for a being with blank eyes. "But before thine exile begins, I will gift thee once more with the sound of my subject's voices, the subjects thou reignedst over for a thousand years. Perhaps thou shalt begin to understand thine error once the praise for the return of their rightful Queen reaches thine ears!"
Corona turned from Luna, raising her head high and closing her eyes as she let the silence spell she had cast over Ponyville dissipate, ready to drink in the eager…
…cries of terror and shouts of horror at what the multitude of ponies were witnessing.
Corona's eyes fluttered open at the sound, though they remained without pupil or iris. A look of doubt appeared on her features. "What?" she demanded, looking around as though seeing the ponies for the first time. Many had fled utterly, while some remained close, paralyzed with fear or else trying to work up the courage to do something to protect their Princess and their loved ones, although what, none of them had even begun to guess. Each time Corona's gaze would fall upon a pony, they would whimper, or recoil in horror, or find whatever small courage they had managed to gather fail and simply turn tail and flee.
"N…nay!" Corona cried, taking several steps forward. Luna redoubled her efforts to free herself, but a glare from Corona and a reinforcement of magic kept her in her place. "Ponies, wherefore do you flee in fear? Screams of delight should be reaching mine ears, not screams of terror!" The white alicorn punctuated this remark by slamming her right hoof down upon the cobblestone street with such force that it sent a ten-foot-long crack straight forward.
The white alicorn's horn glowed brightly and her wings flapped once. Instantly, scores of ponies were seized in her grasp and dragged forward, even those who had hidden inside buildings. Corona was careful to guide them out open doors or windows and place them all in front of her, holding them on their hooves and in place. This easily doubled the wails of abject horror, and over and over again one word reached the white alicorn's ears – Corona! Corona!
Corona closed her eyes and grit her teeth. "Cease your cries! Your Queen commands silence!" she shouted, not merely enhancing her voice, but using magic to adjust its tone and inflection to be one that most ponies simply couldn't disobey. Shortly thereafter – not instantly, but quickly enough – the screams and cries died down to a low-level murmur of whimpers and held-back tears.
Corona looked around at the ponies frozen in place before her. "Explain yourselves!" she commanded. "After one thousand years your rightful Queen has returned!" she approached one pony, getting close to the stallion "Wherefore do you run?" she demanded as he flinched and tried to move away. Corona snorted in disgust and turned to another. "Wherefore do you find cause for fear?"
Luna stopped struggling against her bonds, breathing heavily. She looked to Corona, and the faintest grin appeared on her features. "It was the same a thousand years ago, Corona," she said. "Don't you remember?"
Corona turned quickly, glaring at Luna. "The filth! The spittle!" she exclaimed. "Such lies are unbecoming of thee, sister! A thousand years ago, 'twas thine actions that made the ponies rise against me! Thy corrupting influence in my Court!"
"You mean the Court that you had to drag from their homes, kicking and screaming?" Luna asked. "No, wait. That was earlier. You're referring to the Court that attended you only because you held their families hostage."
"Their obedience was better assured in such a manner! But always I had the love of the common pony – "
"You mean to tell me you don't remember having to threaten to burn down Canterlot and start over, 'like a phoenix risen from the ashes,' if everypony in the city didn't line up for your procession that one time?"
"Thine influence was strong in the capital! But in the rural areas – "
"Where the revolution began?"
"It would hath gone no further had thou not – "
"Had the Royal Guard not immediately switched sides as soon as I had stolen the Elements from you?"
"Be silent!" Corona shouted, the aura surrounded Luna doubling in size and forcing her to the ground. She cried out in pain. "I should have known. A thousand years may not be so long for an alicorn, but for ponies…thou hast had a millennium to sew thy lies amongst my subjects. To turn me into naught more than a monster in their eyes."
"I didn't need to. You did that fine by yourself." Luna's horn glowed, and though she did not escape Corona's magical grip, she managed to force herself to her hooves, and look Corona in her blank eyes. "You had all you could ever want, but you wanted more. You tried to take everything. You weren't a queen, you were a despot. You ceased being my sister and became something that I needed to – that I had to stop." Her eyes narrowed. "You aren't my Tia. You don't deserve that name. You are Corona, the Tyrant Sun. A monster."
Corona's eyes widened at so blatant an insult. "Enough! The life of a pony is as that of a gnat. As thou hast had a thousand years to sew thy lies, so shall I have a thousand to expunge them! Whatever paltry edifices thou hast raised in mine absence, I shall tear down, and raise glorious monuments of mine own. All that thou hast accomplished shall turn to ash in the fires of rebirth that shall spread across Equestria. Nopony shall remember thy lies, nor even thy reign! Thou shalt be forgotten!" Corona's horn flared, the light growing painfully bright. "Thy banishment begins now, Luna!"
Luna tried, one more time, to escape from Corona's magical aura, but her struggles were in vain as white light encompassed her completely. She opened her mouth to shout some final defiance, but the sound of Corona's magic drowned out whatever she tried to say as she shot straight upwards, towards the sun and the moon that lay hidden behind it, disappearing into the unnatural midday's glare. Corona watched the white comet disappear into the sky, her face holding a bizarre, manic mixture of grim determination and sadistic glee, mane and tail billowing like flames caught in a breeze but which were too determined to be put out by it.
At length, Corona turned around, looking over the ponies and letting her white aura of magic fade from them. All were too paralyzed by fear to run, instead only huddling together, trying to protect each other from Corona's gaze. "Who among you leads this settlement?" she demanded, stamping a hoof. "Who represents my sister's Court? Step forward and present thyself to thy returned Queen."
There was a long pause, before a beige-colored earth pony began creeping forward, head low but eyes locked on Corona and fighting back tears of fright. "I…I – I'm the m-mayor of Ponyville, y-your majesty," the pony said as she came forward and began to bow. "M-my name is – "
"Wait!"
Corona blinked at the interruption, as a light blue unicorn, wearing a tall, purple, star-studded hat and matching cape, as well as a blue shirt and deep purple coat, pushed her way to the front of the crowd. On reaching it, and having no more ponies between her and Corona's glare, she paused for a moment, as though regretting her actions, but then grit her teeth and made her way forward.
"I'm the one you want," the unicorn said.
"There would appear to be some confusion as to who leads this settlement," Corona observed. "Explain."
Trixie stepped forward. "You asked two questions," Trixie noted. "Who's in charge? Who represents Luna?" The unicorn nodded to the mayor. "She's the elected mayor of Ponyville. But if you're looking for the representative of Luna's Night Court…that would be me." Trixie ground her teeth together as she closed her eyes. "Don't – please, your majesty, don't hurt her. Don't hurt anypony here. If you're looking to destroy Luna's government, then I'm the one you want."
There was long silence, broken only by the cackling of the flames that still surrounded Ponyville – and, Trixie noted, a similar sound coming from Corona's mane and tail as well. Trixie heard hoof-steps in front of her, and dared open one eye. Corona was pacing around her and the mayor, appraising them both, as well as the gathered ponies who were still watching in abject terror, wondering if they were about to witness an execution.
Trixie tried not to think. She tried not to think about her future and the innumerable ways that Corona could kill her, many of which would involve fire, all of which would be painful beyond belief, and few of which would be quick. She also tried not to think about her immediate past, and what she had just seen – Luna, Princess Luna, the immortal ruler of Equestria, her mentor, in many ways her surrogate parent for the past ten years, utterly and completely dominated by this monster, by a dark and terrible legend come to life, banished to the moon for a thousand years.
Trixie would never see her again. And their last true exchange had been Luna expressing how disappointed she was in Trixie – how she intended to terminate Trixie's apprenticeship. Trixie didn't want to die. But she did want to live up to the standards Luna had set for her – be the pony that Luna had wanted her to be. If that meant offering up her life to Corona for Ponyville, or even just Ponyville's mayor, then so be it.
Corona completed her circle of the two, and settled down on her haunches as she did so, looking between the two. "Madame mayor. I have no quarrel with thee. Thou shalt leave my presence."
The mayor bowed deeply – either that or her forelegs had given out in relief, but the effect was much the same – and withdrew. Corona turned her blank gaze upon Trixie, and leaned forward. "Thy name?" Corona asked.
"Trixie Lulamoon, your majesty," Trixie responded, keeping her head bowed. Just make it quick, she thought. That's all I'm asking...
"And thy standing? Thou must be a viscountess, at least, to hold dominion over so large a settlement."
Trixie blinked a few times at that. "Uh – " she said. Her mind whirled. Corona expected her to be a noble. She expected her to be a noble because of how large Ponyville was. Of course. A thousand years ago – when last Corona was in Equestria – Ponyville would have been considered a decent-sized city, instead of just barely more than a large town. To Corona's blank eyes, Ponyville seemed like a major appointment, where an important noble pony would have been entrusted to oversee it in the name of the Princess.
But this paled next to the realization that Corona even cared. If all Corona had intended to do was begin the process of immolating the members of Luna's government, Trixie would already be dead, and so would the mayor. No, Corona was seeking something else…and it took only a second for Trixie to realize what, keyed in from what she had heard Luna say to Corona about Corona dragging her Court to session, then holding their families hostage to keep them there. Corona may have been a despot, a mad alicorn, the Tyrant Sun – but even she couldn't run a land as large as Equestria all by herself. She needed a Court of her own to handle day-to-day affairs, and simply burning away all of Luna's Night Court was hardly practical, especially if she really did want to try and earn the love of ponies everywhere. It would make far more sense to, at least in the short term –
"I grow impatient," Corona intoned.
Trixie glanced up, then bowed her head. "F-forgive me," she said, and picked a relatively middling noble rank at random. "Duchess, your majesty."
Corona's eyes widened slightly. "Duchess?" she asked. "What crime hath been committed by thee to warrant thy appointment here?"
Trixie winced – apparently she'd shot a little too high. But – yes. She could work with this. "I…had a…disagreement with Princess Luna, your majesty, over my duties. I felt I could handle more than she was giving me." Trixie said, keeping her head bowed. "This appointment was intended as more of a banishment from the Night Court than anything."
Corona considered Trixie, as Trixie once more dared look at Corona's blank eyes. The white alicorn's emotions were difficult to read thanks to those empty orbs. She had no idea what Corona was thinking, what Corona intended to do to her. At length, the white alicorn spread her wings. "Whatever quarrel thou hast had with mine sister," she said, "I believe to be most unfair. 'Twas a brave thing for thee to present thyself before me. No doubt thou believed that thy very life was at stake due to the lies about me that thou hast heard from my sister."
Corona stood. "I am not the monster mine sister hath claimed me to be. I am not!" she emphasized this point with a flutter of her wings. After a moment of letting her proclamation sink in to the ponies of Ponyville, she regarded Trixie with an arch look. "Equestria has languished under my sister's clumsy hooves for too long, ever since she somehow corrupted the Elements of Harmony and turned them upon me. I shall bring glory to the land once more!" Corona extended her right hoof. "Kiss my hoof, Duchess Trixie, and swear allegiance to my reign, now and forever."
Trixie paused only a moment before doing so. "I swear," she promised. It felt like her mouth was full of bile as she did, but if it let her come out of this alive, along with everypony in Ponyville…even as she did, however, she struggled to keep her eyes from widening as she struck upon something that Corona had said. The Elements of Harmony.
Of course! All she had to do was make it out of the next few minutes alive…which, as she glanced up at Corona, suddenly seemed unlikely. Corona was regarding her with narrow eyes, wings spread threateningly, as she withdrew her hoof.
"No…" the alicorn intoned. "No…'twas too easy, somehow. I find it hard to believe that a pony who would lay down her life to save another's would so easily bow to me, no matter her quarrel with my sister or her Court."
Trixie blinked. "I – no, your majesty, it's just, with Princess Luna gone, I – "
"Ah…" Corona said, cutting Trixie off and grinning widely as she believed she understood the source of Trixie's actions. "'Twas not bravery. 'Twas a peculiar cowardice, and spite for thy former princess, and opportunism. Thou believed that thou couldst ingratiate thyself within my new Court."
"N…y…maybe…?" Trixie asked stupidly. On the other hoof, it certainly made her sound like such a pony as Corona was describing, caught in the act.
Corona considered, probably weighing the value of such a pony against the fact that, at the end of the day, she really would need to, for the moment, keep Equestria's infrastructure more-or-less intact, lest the realm collapse into anarchy. At length, she brightened, stepping back several paces. "An idea occurs to me," she said. "Thy desires seem genuine enough, but thy loyalty is in question. Still, thou were willing to risk death itself for thy fellow pony. 'Tis evidence of a shred of true nobility in thy veins, somewhere." Corona smiled as her horn glowed.
Behind Trixie, she heard cries of terror and screams. Turning swiftly, she saw a multitude of ponies wrapped in white auras, being pulled from the crowd that Corona had assembled and dragged through the air, towards the white alicorn one at a time. Specifically, Corona was grasping foals.
"No!" Trixie cried out, not thinking as her horn glowed brightly, reaching above her and trying to grab at the colts and fillies being dragged to Corona. She was powerless against the alicorn's magic, however – it was possible that Corona didn't even feel her feeble attempts to wrench the kicking, screaming foals from her telekinetic grasp. Trixie wasn't even the only one – mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters all tried, with magic if they were unicorns or bare hooves and teeth if they weren't, to hold on to their children, but against the Tyrant Sun, their efforts were wasted; indeed they were wrapped in white auras of their own and pushed back.
Trixie's magic failed utterly, and her heart stopped beating, at the last foal to pass overhead, a gray-coated, yellow-maned unicorn filly who was being held onto tightly by her pegasus mother. Ditzy Doo's eyes were focused on her Dinky Doo's own, tears staining both their eyes as the Corona's magic forced them apart, driving Ditzy Doo back to the crowd and Dinky over to behind the mad alicorn. Without thinking, Trixie rushed to Ditzy's side, magic and hooves both holding the pegasus back from charging at Corona. Other ponies tried to do likewise, but Corona only chuckled slightly as she shoved away. All in all, Corona had captured at least fifty foals, probably more.
"Of course, I shall be too busy in Canterlot to keep a good eye on them," Corona mused aloud. At random, a handful of other ponies were dragged forward, much as the foals had been, though with less resistance as the Ponyvillians were still trying to recover from their children having been stolen. Among them, Trixie saw, was the cream-colored, blue-and-pink haired marefriend of Lyra.
Corona's eyes narrowed as her horn flared. "Fear not, my subjects," the Tyrant Sun said. "They are merely my hostages. They shall ensure the loyalty and stability of this settlement, with the mares and stallions I have taken to keep the colts and fillies in good health."
Corona leaned forward, towards Trixie, as the flames around Ponyville finally disappeared. "And this shalt be thy test. Keep Ponyville ordered and secure, and thou shalt need not fear for thy fellow pony. Provided, of course, thou survive thy fellow pony's judgement."
With that, Corona beat her wings, taking to the air, and dragging the screaming foals and adult ponies with her. Once she was hovering over Ponyville, she stood as though the air were solid ground, smiling widely. "Rejoice, my subjects!" Corona called. "Your true queen hath returned! In celebration, there shall be an unbroken ten days of glorious sunshine! On the tenth day, if all has gone as I wish it – if I am obeyed – your foals shall be returned to you. If otherwise…" Corona let her sentence hang, feeling no need to complete it. With a burst of light and a strong beat of her wings, she was off, dragging the ponies held in her magical grip behind her.
All eyes turned to where Trixie had been holding Ditzy Doo – or at least all the eyes of everypony who wasn't too broken by the events that had just occurred to do anything other than stand in shock or weep. But the unicorn was already gone from sight, as was Ditzy Doo.
Oddly, Trixie didn't feel nervous about the fact that, with the sun directly overhead, it was essentially midday. Perhaps that superstition was keyed more to the time of day than the position of the sun; either that or she was so terrified right now that mere nervousness over the unnatural midday wasn't capable of registering beyond abstractly noting its absence.
Trixie opened the door to her house, closed it, and let the invisibility spell she had wrapped around her and Ditzy Doo, whom she was carrying on her back, slide off of them. On seeing Ditzy Doo, she almost wished she hadn't. The pegasus mare's eyes were wide with panic, and she was holding onto Trixie tightly, sobbing without shame into the unicorn's mane.
"Dinky!" Ditzy cried out as Trixie made her way into her living room, suddenly finding life in her limbs as her wings began beating frantically, lifting herself off of Trixie's back and straight up. She was stopped only by the room's ceiling, and came crashing down to the floor again. Trixie leapt on top of her before the mare could get her hooves under her and go racing outside.
"Ditzy!" Trixie cried as she held the pegasus down. "Ditzy! Stop! You can't – "
"Get off!" Ditzy Doo interrupted, foreleg lashing out and hitting Trixie squarely in her jaw. The unicorn stumbled backwards, and Ditzy began running, but Trixie was faster and was once again atop her. "Get off of me! I have to save her!" Ditzy cried out.
"You can't!"
"Yes I can!" Ditzy shouted, rolling over onto her back in order to buck Trixie. The unicorn's horn pulsed with magic and stopped the blow, then Trixie once again threw herself atop Ditzy Doo, holding her down. She did not stop struggling in the slightest. "She's my daughter! I have to save her! I have – "
"You can't!" Trixie repeated. She stopped holding Ditzy Doo down, and instead switched to embracing the pegasus. Unsurprisingly, Ditzy latched onto Trixie, once again crying her eyes out – she wasn't going to run out of tears any time soon, it seemed.
Trixie felt her own eyes watering as well. "I'm sorry…" Trixie begged. "I'm sorry. I didn't know Corona would do that. I didn't know, I was just trying to save the mayor, I thought I was going to die but then I thought I found a way to make it out and then nopony would be hurt and I didn't know…"
The two ponies remained on the floor of Trixie's living room for several minutes, just holding each other, one wracked with feelings of failure and the other with guilt. At length, Trixie forced herself to pull away from Ditzy Doo, and got onto her shaking hooves, her expression dark.
"She'll be fine if – " Trixie began, when the window to her living room exploded inwards in a shower of wood and glass. Trixie's horn flared, but she didn't have time to react as a jasmine-and-blue blur slammed into her and forcing her back against her wall. Trixie's eyes widened as they locked onto Raindrops' own. "W-wait, I – " the unicorn started.
"There's maybe fifteen seconds before half of Ponyville arrives here," Raindrops interrupted as she pulled away from Trixie. Trixie began to speak, but the weather pony's hoof was near-instantly in her mouth, shutting her up. "You. Carrot Top's. Run."
Trixie blinked once in shock, before survival instinct kicked in. She cast her familiar invisibility-and-silence-spell combo – eliciting a slightly raised eyebrow from Raindrops at the sight of her being erased from the visible spectrum – before dashing off as fast as her hooves could take her. On her way out of her home, through the same hole that Raindrops had made while entering, she saw the mob of ponies approaching her house, cries of traitor and monster on their lips. The mob was surprisingly small; then again, she supposed that a large number of ponies would still be paralyzed with fear and terror over what had just happened.
Despite nopony being able to see her, and so being supposedly perfectly safe, Trixie ran for her life from Ponyville.
Carrot Top jumped as her door opened and closed of its own accord not long after she had arrived home herself with Lyra and Cheerilee, and was startled again when a blue-coated, white-maned, purple-clad unicorn appeared from nowhere only a few feet away from her, barrel heaving. She looked to Carrot Top. "Hi – " Trixie began, when she found herself seized in a golden magical aura and hurled upwards, into the ceiling of Carrot Top's living room.
"You!" Lyra – still wearing her white-and-gold dress – exclaimed, charging forward despite a magenta earth pony's attempts to stop her. "It's your fault! BonBon's been kidnapped, I'll never see her again, and it's your fault!"
Trixie grunted, her own horn flashing and shoving Lyra's telekinesis off of her. She managed to fall from the ceiling and land on her hooves without problem, and both Carrot Top and Cheerilee managed to stop Lyra's attempts to abandon telekinesis and use her bare hooves on Trixie. The blue unicorn nevertheless began backing away, but then the door opened again, and Raindrops entered, half-carrying a still-distraught Ditzy Doo with her. The jasmine-coated pegasi glared at Trixie as she did, closing the door behind her firmly before taking in a few deep breaths and letting them out slowly.
Trixie looked around at the situation. Lyra had stopped trying to cause grievous harm to Trixie, instead falling to her knees and crying, with Cheerilee beside her and holding her. Ditzy Doo was at least as distraught; Trixie made her way over to the gray pegasus took up a similar role as Cheerilee's for Lyra, before looking to Raindrops and Carrot Top. "Okay," she said, "why are you helping me?"
"You were trying to save the mayor," Raindrops observed. "Just about everypony in Ponyville's too angry and too scared to see that right now, but I know that's what you were trying to do." Her eyes narrowed, then, and she leaned in close to Trixie. "Right? Because if Corona was right – if you really were just kissing her flank to save your behind – "
"No!" Trixie interrupted, though she paused. "Not – I was trying to save the mayor. I was ready to die. But then Corona asked me about my noble title and I realized that she wanted me alive because she's going to need to keep the government intact in order to actually run Equestria, and I thought I saw a way out, a way for me to survive and the mayor to survive and everypony to just make it out okay! I didn't know she'd kidnap ponies!" Trixie hugged Ditzy Doo tighter at that, as the mare's tears resumed with even greater vigor. She glared at Raindrops. "But why are you helping me? You and Carrot Top? You two hate me! Princess Luna told me so!"
Raindrops jabbed a hoof at Cheerilee. The magenta earth pony blinked a few times, looking between the five other ponies. "I saw what you were doing," she said. "With the mayor, trying to save her. I heard what you were saying, and I know you were just trying to make it out okay, but everypony was getting so mad. I'd heard from Princess Luna that you and Raindrops knew each other, so I got her, and got Lyra, and Lyra suggested Carrot Top's, and we were going to help you hide since the residency wouldn't be safe for you, but then Corona took the foals…"
"But I thought you hated me. I thought you all hated me."
"That doesn't mean we want to see you mobbed."
"Not even Raindrops?"
The jasmine pegasus whickered. "No. You're mine."
"Besides," Cheerilee said, "I know you were just trying your best to make the festival a good – "
"What do we do?" Carrot Top interrupted suddenly, as the situation became too much for her. She began to pace in place. "Corona's free and Princess Luna is gone and I'm harboring a traitor to Equestria – "
"I'm not a traitor!" Trixie shouted.
"You look like one!" Carrot Top countered. "Even though you're not you look like one and they're going to search all the houses in Ponyville and they'll find you and lynch you and lynch me for harboring you and then Corona is going to get mad and kill all the – "
Carrot Top's ranting was stopped by Raindrops shoving a hoof in her mouth. A long silence began, interrupted only by the gasping sobs of Ditzy Doo and Lyra. "That's not going to happen," Trixie intoned after awhile. "Corona won't kill anypony. I'll…I'll just hide for as long as it takes for Ponyville to calm down. Corona said she'd return everypony she took as long as Ponyville obeyed all her commands. All that needs to happen is that and for me to not be stupid and run into the Everfree."
"Why would you go there?" Cheerilee asked.
Trixie grimaced, looking down. "I thought I could get the…nevermind. Nothing. Forget I said anything."
"No," Raindrops said, stomping forward. "Get what? What are you talking about?"
Trixie looked up. Raindrops' eyes were narrow as she regarded Trixie. The unicorn stared for a long moment before letting out a sigh. "Okay," she said. "Technically this is a state secret. But it's not in any law books or official orders or anything, it's just something that only me and Princess Luna and maybe a few others know. Okay?"
Raindrops nodded. Trixie looked to each of the remaining four ponies; Lyra and Ditzy Doo were still mostly lost in their sadness, while Carrot Top and Cheerilee also nodded in understanding. Sighing, Trixie pressed on. "While I was talking to Corona, but before she took the foals, I thought I knew some way to get rid of her. I thought I'd go get the Elements of Harmony."
Carrot Top blinked a few times. "You wanted to go to Canterlot?" she exclaimed. "Where there's a good chance Corona is going to be setting everything on fire?"
Trixie shook her head. "The Elements aren't in Canterlot."
"Yes they are," Cheerilee objected, standing, though she remained close to Lyra. "They're on display in the palace. I've seen them, we went there on a field trip when I was a filly, Lyra and all the other unicorns kept going on about how much magic was coming off of them – "
"Those aren't the Elements," Trixie explained. "They're fakes. Just six random gemstones that Princess Luna pours tons of magic into every year to make them seem like they're the Elements. I only know because my special talent is magic, and I've got a really good feel for magic too, and after I started my apprenticeship with Luna and she taught me the detect magic spell I used to cast it on everything. I cast it on Luna once when she raised the moon and I went blind for three days from how much magic she lets out while doing that. But when I cast it on the Elements, I didn't even get a headache. I thought that was weird – y'know, they're the Elements and all – and I asked Princess Luna about it, so she showed me the real Elements."
Cheerilee blinked. "Why would Princess Luna lie about that?"
"Because the real Elements are petrified rocks," Trixie said. "They're in the Everfree Forest, in the ruins of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. After Luna banished Corona to the sun, they just went inert and kind of froze in place. No force – not even Luna herself – could move them. Luna didn't want everypony to know that, though. So she made the fakes."
"And she just left the real ones unguarded?" Carrot Top asked. "Why?"
Trixie grimaced. "Not exactly ungaurded. There's traps, and of course they're in the middle of the Everfree and all its monsters. As for why, Princess Luna didn't say, but at a guess I'd say she just didn't want to ever have to go back to where she'd fought the Tyrant Sun." Trixie shook her mane. "I thought that if I could get to the Elements of Harmony, I might find some way of getting them free and using them on Corona. But not now, not while she has those hostages…"
"No," Raindrops said. She wasn't looking at Trixie, but rather down at the ground, eyes moving a little as though reading. "No, we have to go now. Now's the perfect time."
"What?" the five other ponies in the room demanded, with Trixie appending a "and where's this we coming from?" to her objection.
Raindrops looked between them. "Corona has her hooves full right now," she pointed out. "That's why she took all those mares and stallions with her, remember? To keep an eye on the foals. She has a government to overthrow and bring over to her side, and she'll probably have to do a repeat of what she did with Trixie in most other towns and cities in Equestria, at least until she forces everypony else to bow to her. Plus, there's the Royal Guard."
"They can't win," Carrot Top objected, shaking her head morosely at the thought.
"But they'll fight anyway," Raindrops pointed out. "They'll be buying us time without even knowing. If the Elements can work at all, then now is our best chance to get them."
"But Corona…" Lyra objected, as she and Ditzy stood. "Corona will kill BonBon and all those foals if she finds out what we're doing!"
Raindrops fixed Lyra with a sad look, then turned to Ditzy as well. "If we wait," she said, "then we'll never get this opportunity again. One of the first things Corona is going to do, when she gets a chance, is check out where everypony thinks the Elements are. If she realizes they're fakes, she'll start hunting for the real ones. And the first place you look for something is the last place you saw it."
She looked between the five other ponies. "Come on," she said. "We all know the stories about Corona. The legends. What she's like. We've seen what she's capable of. We saw what she did to Princess Luna. Those ponies she kidnapped won't be safe until Corona is back in the sun where she belongs."
"But where's this we coming from?" Trixie repeated, stepping forward. "It's too dangerous. I wasn't even thinking of asking anypony to come with me – "
Raindrops snorted. "Like you'd last five minutes in the Everfree by yourself."
"Not the point."
"I know. I also know that now that I know there's a chance of stopping Corona, I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try."
Trixie searched the pegasus' face. Despite her words and tone, her expression remained surprisingly neutral. "Fine," she said. "I guess I could use a set of wings, anyway. The rest of you – "
"I'm coming too," Cheerilee said, stepping forward. "Those foals are my students, or a lot of them are, anyway. I have to try and save them."
Trixie began to object, when Carrot Top stepped forwards. "Me too," she said. "I know a lot about the flora of the Everfree Forest. I might be able to help you."
Trixie looked between the three ponies. "Okay…" she acquiesced. "Okay. So the four of us – "
"I'm coming too," Lyra interrupted, wiping her tears from her eyes. "Raindrops…Raindrops is right. BonBon won't be safe unless Corona is sealed away again. Plus, Trixie, your special talent might be magic, but I actually went to the magic academy. I might be able to help with freeing the Elements."
"Fine," Trixie said, shaking her head. "Fine. Ditzy Doo, I guess you should go home and – "
"I'm already at the door," Ditzy Doo's voice said. Everypony turned to look at her. Her wings were no longer sagging with sorrow, but instead were held at the ready, and her face, though her eyes were still red from tears and walled, was set with a look of determination. "I'm coming too. Dinky Doo would want me to try and save her."
Trixie blinked, looking between the five ponies. "No," she said in a small voice, though it was louder for her next proclamation. For some reason, she felt she had to try and stop them, stop this madness. "No! This is stupid! We're going to get everypony killed!"
"Fine," Raindrops said. "We've still got Lyra for unicorn magic. The five of us will go into the Everfree. You can stay behind."
Trixie blinked. "Are you trying reverse psychology on me?"
Raindrops' expression clearly asked do I look like the kind of pony who'd try that, even though she herself remained silent. Instead, Cheerilee stepped up to Trixie. "Nopony will blame you," she said. "You must have been close to Princess Luna…if you don't think you can handle this right now, we'll understand."
Trixie recoiled a little. She'd managed to not think about seeing Princess Luna so soundly thrashed by Corona…not think about the fact that Luna was gone, sealed away for a millennium…for several minutes now. The image of Corona's magic sending Luna away in a white comet, straight into the sky, came rushing back to her.
Even if they won…even if they somehow, against all odds, got the Elements, figured out how to make them work, and then used them on Corona…would that bring Luna back?
Trixie looked to Lyra and Ditzy Doo. The former had lost the love of her life. The latter had lost her daughter. Both were willing to put everything on the line nevertheless. Luna would never forgive her if she didn't act – and just as importantly, Trixie would never be able to forgive herself. Trixie didn't consider herself a principled mare, but whatever principles she did have, now was the time to be honest with herself about them.
Trixie also grimaced as she looked each of the ponies in the eye. She had been horrible to them over the past few days – well, not Ditzy Doo so much, but certainly Lyra, Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Carrot Top. But these ponies were still willing to go on what she said to try and save Equestria from the mad alicorn queen now trying to take it over – and had been willing to try and help her from everypony in Ponyville landing on her like a ton of bricks.
"I'm going too," she said. "And…and I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the last two days. I'm sorry for the way I treated you all. I'm sorry for the weather-for-hire ponies, for the blackmail, for calling you useless, for butting in where I wasn't wanted, for manipulating you to do what I wanted to try and get back at Luna over something stupid that was all in my head…" Trixie looked down. "I'm sorry. If this all goes to the sun, I just want you to know that."
The other ponies looked between each other. After a moment, Cheerilee, Ditzy Doo, Carrot Top, and Lyra all nodded. "Just don't do it again," Cheerilee said. "Provided there is an again for us."
Trixie nodded once, before looking hopefully at Raindrops. The pegasus considered Trixie for a long moment, analyzing her. For once in her life – or at least for the first time in a long time – Trixie willingly let the emotions she was feeling just display themselves on her face. "Alright," the pegasus declared at length, waving a hoof as though casting off the murderous intent she'd possessed earlier in the day. "But if you ever do anything like this again, I'm going to hit you. Hard."
"Fine by me," Trixie said. "As hard as you want."
Raindrops nodded as she headed towards the door to Carrot Top's house. "I'm holding you to that," she promised.
"Trixie, I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest," Lyra said as they trotted through the Everfree.
Trixie stopped on the rough trail, looked around, and then let out a long sigh. "Yes," she said, knowing what Lyra was going to ask. "Yes. I'm lost. Or at least I don't know where I'm going. When Princess Luna brought me here, we flew in, and it was years ago, and I wasn't trying to remember the way."
"Great," Carrot Top declared, rolling her eyes as the rest of the ponies all came to a stop, and all six tried very hard not to think about the fact that they were standing idly under the gnarled, twisted boughs of the Everfree Forest.
Something was wrong with the Everfree – no, not quite that, Trixie thought. Something being wrong with the Everfree implied that there was some outside force causing its peculiarity. Trixie was fairly certain, however, that instead something was simply wrong about the Everfree Forest. The trees and plants grew on their own, according to their own designs. The creatures – the animals, yes, but also the other things in here – took care of themselves. And the weather, as Trixie had recently learned, also moved and changed seemingly randomly.
Theoretically, the eerie feeling of the Everfree should have been lessened by the sun hanging high overhead. It may have been midday, still, but it was also the middle of winter, even in the Everfree, meaning that the trees had no leaves on them and plenty of sunlight was shining into the forest, lighting its darkest corners. On the other hoof, not only was the sun shining in the clear blue skies – still faintly studded with stars beyond the disc's glare – but it seemed to be burning with more intensity than was natural for the season. The snow and ice that blanketed the Everfree was melting quickly, making the air unexpectedly stifling, especially for six ponies clad in winter capes and hats. The two unicorns in the group, at least, were grateful that they had thought to leave their additional articles of clothing behind at Carrot Top's.
"Hang on," Raindrops said, beating her wings and rising. "I'll see if I can get us a point of reference or spot the ruins…"
The other five ponies watched her rise into the sky, then looked between each other awkwardly. So far, their valiant quest to save Equestria and its ponies had amounted to a walk through a humid forest full of melting snow, bothered only by their imaginations and the stories of the place.
The silence stretched.
After a moment, it continued to stretch.
And eventually, it proceeded to continue to stretch.
"Somepony," Carrot Top broke the silence at last, eliciting a startled jump from Trixie and Ditzy Doo both, though the others handled it somewhat better, "please just say or do something so I can stop thinking about the past few hours."
There was a pause that threatened to become another bout of awkward silence before Cheerilee spoke up. "Well," she said. "Apart from Lyra, I don't know most of you very well. So how about we start with that?" She nodded to herself at the thought. "Just like on the first day of class, or when a new student comes in, they introduce themselves and say a little about…" she trailed off after a moment at the looks from the other ponies, and hung her head. "Sorry…stupid idea…"
Ditzy Doo shifted uncomfortably for a moment, before stepping forward. "Hi everypony," she said, her voice somewhat monotone. "I'm Ditzy Doo. I deliver the mail to you," she pointed to Lyra, "and you, or I will once you start getting some," she pointed to Trixie, then finished by pointing straight up, "and to Raindrops. I have a very severe case of strabismus – walled eyes – and have since I was born." She thought a moment, scratching the back of her head with one hoof in thought, before chuckling. "And I'm a horrible judge of character when it comes to stallions."
Her low laughter prompted similar chortles from the other ponies. Trixie assumed that Ditzy was referring to whatever circumstances saw her carrying and raising Dinky Doo at so young an age. It was probably a good sign that Ditzy Doo was able to laugh at the situation.
Cheerilee nodded. "Oh!" she said. "And your cutie mark? Your special talent?"
Ditzy Doo blinked. "Um…" she said, looking at her flank, where seven bubbles floated. "Air currents. I'm really good at feeling air currents, even tiny breezes. I'd probably be a weather pony if not for my disability."
Cheerilee offered a polite series of hoof-stamps for Ditzy Doo, and the other four ponies, despite themselves, joined in. "Okay," she said, "who's next?"
"Me," Lyra volunteered. Trixie did not find it surprising that the two ponies who'd personally lost somepony were the most eager to take part in Cheerilee's little exercise, to try and forget about Corona stealing their loved ones. "Lyra Heartstrings. My special talent is music, especially strings and especially the lyre, but I can play just about anything you put in front of me, and I'm a good singer, too. I've just spent three years at Luna's magic academy on a music scholarship. And I…" she got up on her hind legs, wobbling a little before balancing, "can do…" she began leaning backwards, almost falling over, but her forelegs arched out over her head in a thoroughly painful-looking position, "this!"
The five ponies stared at Lyra, now with her horn nearly brushing the ground beneath her, legs splayed out unnaturally and with a grin on her face. "Ew," Trixie declared. "Ew."
"Doesn't that hurt?" Carrot Top asked.
Lyra let herself fall onto her back, before picking herself up. "Not really," she remarked. "I'm double-jointed pretty much everywhere."
"Ew," Trixie repeated. Lyra stuck her tongue out at her, prompting another round of low laughter from the group. Thankfully, Lyra didn't seem to have – or else chose not to demonstrate – any facial contortion talents.
"That was…interesting," Cheerilee decided. "I'll go next. I was born in Ponyville and I've lived there my whole life. I teach the elementary school there. My cutie mark," she turned slightly, presenting her right flank to the other four ponies, showing off the trio of blossoming yellow flowers, each of which had smiling faces on them, "represents my love of seeing my students learn, grow, and eventually blossom into whatever livelihood they want."
There was a moment of silence. "And?" Carrot Top asked.
Cheerilee offered a slight chuckle, blushing. "Um…that's really it, actually. I've kind of been so concerned with getting a teaching license over the past few years, and then making sure that my first school year was going well, that I haven't really done much else or…anything…"
"Oh, come on," Lyra objected. "Even I've had time to see BonBon every now and then, and you were never that shy before I left...there's got to be somepony…"
Cheerilee was probably blushing, but with her coat color it couldn't be seen. She shook her head. "Not really, no."
"We'll have to fix that," Lyra said, tapping a hoof to her mouth in thought. "Oh, here's an idea. Trixie's really friendly after a few drinks, she'd probably – "
"Excuse me?" Trixie interrupted.
"Hush, I'm speaking for you," Lyra commanded. That prompted considerably more earnest laughter from Carrot Top, Lyra, and Ditzy Doo, while probably Cheerilee and definitely Trixie continued to blush furiously.
"I'm not into mares," Trixie interrupted.
"That's not what you said a few nights ago…" Lyra observed. "Me, and BonBon, and Pinkie Pie…"
"That was the bourbon. The bourbon is equal-opportunity. I'm not into mares."
Cheerilee managed to laugh at that, and even Trixie couldn't suppress a slight grin. "I'm not either, actually," she assured Trixie, as she turned to Carrot Top. "Okay, Carrot Top, how about you?"
Her fellow earth pony followed the established pattern of showing off her cutie mark. "You can probably guess what my special talent is," she said of the three carrots emblazoned on her flank. "I was actually born in the city, though, in Fillydelphia, but I used to come down to Ponyville to help my grandparents during the summers and the harvests. I was studying to be a…" she trailed off a moment in thought, before shaking her mane. "I don't even remember. It wasn't important, never really held me much. I loved the farm too much, and I earned my cutie mark there when I realized how much, when my grandparents first told me how good I was at planting and tending and harvesting and so on. When my grandparents passed on, well, my parents have their own lives in Fillydelphia, but all I wanted was to keep Golden Harvests – that's my farm's name – in business, didn't want the farm just sold off. I've…been managing." She grimaced as she looked to Trixie. "In all honesty…the festival helped. It helped a lot. You were right, the smaller farms in Ponyville shouldn't just sit on the sidelines and let the Apples run roughshod over us."
Trixie shook her head. "That doesn't make what I did right."
"It means you did the right thing for the wrong reasons," Carrot Top countered. "You said you were sorry. That's what's important."
By now, everypony was looking expectantly at Trixie. The blue unicorn blinked as she realized this, looking up. "What is taking Raindrops so long?" she asked nonchalantly.
"Come on, Trixie," Cheerilee said. "The rest of us have opened up. You're the one I was most curious about, though."
"Yeah," Ditzy Doo confirmed. "I mean, we all knew about each other in some ways already even if we didn't actually know each other. But apart from Lyra, I don't think anypony here really knows you all that well."
"And not even me," Lyra noted. "Nothing besides a few rumors and the past two days, anyway."
Trixie looked between her companions, then let out a long sigh, slumping a little. "Alright," she conceded. Everypony else had opened up, she supposed it was only fair that she did – though when Raindrops went back she made a mental note to make sure that the weather pony was also pressed into this. "My name's Trixie Lulamoon but do not call me Lulamoon, ever. I was born and raised in Neigh Orleans, but I've lost the accent since I've spent the past ten years in Canterlot."
"Except when drunk," Lyra noted. "When it's okay to call you Lulamoon, too."
"Apparently," Trixie observed in a dry voice.
"How'd you become Luna's student?" The mint unicorn continued. "I mean…was there, like, some kind of contest that I missed or something? Or some special test for Luna's school for gifted unicorns?"
Trixie shook her head, and grimaced. "My grand-père – grandfather – was Quartermoon the Magnificent, the greatest magician to have ever lived. His cutie mark was the same as mine," Trixie brushed aside her cape so that she could show off the crescent-shaped nebula of stars and magic wand that was her cutie mark. "He was an earth pony."
"An earth pony who's special talent was magic?" Carrot Top asked incredulously.
Trixie nodded. "He was a stage magician. Sleight-of-hoof, smoke and mirrors, rabbits from a hat, chop cup, making things disappear from plain sight, you name it, he could do it better than anypony else. He always had some new trick. Whenever Grandpapa came by to visit, he used to tuck me into bed and, rather than read me a bedtime story, he'd put on a private show. Everypony loved him, including one pony in particular, who made it a point to see every one of his shows whenever he came to Canterlot, though always in disguise: Princess Luna."
Trixie should have been saying what she was with immense pride and happiness; instead, her tone of voice was somber. The other ponies looked between each other as Trixie paused. "What happened?" Ditzy Doo asked.
Trixie shrugged. "He got old," she said. "But wouldn't admit it. Until one day, on stage in Canterlot, he collapsed – liver failure. Luna dropped her disguise and personally took him to the nearest hospital. My entire family was rushed up from Neigh Orleans to see him. Nopony wanted to tell me what was happening, but I figured it out, or at least put things together as best I could for a filly. I knew he was dying, and I knew that meant he was going to go to sleep and he wasn't going to wake up, ever. And I knew that if that was happening to me, that I'd want him to give me a magic show before I went to sleep. So I somehow managed to convince my aunt and uncle, his doctors, and Luna to let me put on one for him. It was while I was doing this for Grandpapa that I earned my cutie mark, since I realized how much I loved doing magic – spells and sleight of hoof both – and loved doing it for an audience, for ponies in general."
The other ponies glanced between each other. The earning of a cutie mark was usually something joyous and filled with wonder and glee – very often it ranked as the happiest moment of anypony's life, or close to it. For Trixie, though, there didn't seem to be any happiness. "So…so you earned your cutie mark…" Cheerilee observed, "while basically telling a bed-time story to your own dying grandfather…that just might be the saddest thing I've ever heard…"
Trixie laughed at that – not ironically, but a full, deep laugh at the memory, which startled the ponies from their somber thoughts. "I haven't told you about the show yet, that was the sad part," she reminisced. "It was the worst ever. My sleight-of-hoof was awful, even for just a filly. I botched one trick in particular and flipped a bedpan and it ended up on my head, thank the stars it was empty…" Trixie leaned forward a little, one hoof at her stomach as she laughed. At the thought of a filly Trixie wearing a bedpan for a hat, the other mares began laughing as well.
"Grandpapa heckled me something awful," Trixie continued after the laughter had died down, "but he also gave me pointers, and he was enjoying my show and what it meant. After I was done Grandpapa said that I was the worst magician alive, but that I had potential and more talent than he'd had at the same age, and to not give up. And that was the last time I saw him alive. He died early the next morning. After the funeral, Luna came up to my family and I. She said that ponies with magic as their special talents are rare, but ponies with doing magic for others are one in a million. She offered me her personal apprenticeship. My family agreed, I accepted, and…well, here I am, saving the world."
"And trying to ruin festivals," Carrot Top observed.
"No, that was before," Ditzy Doo pointed out, before Trixie could respond. "Now it's saving the world. She can get back to ruining things later."
"Are you kidding?" Trixie asked, suppressing her desire to snark at Carrot Top over her comment. "If we make it through this alive, I'm going to lock myself in a distillery for a week."
Lyra chuckled at that. "Lulamoon's more fun than Trixie, anyway."
"We are not calling drunk me Lulamoon," Trixie insisted, blushing furiously. "We're not."
"You're not," Cheerilee corrected, tapping a hoof to her mouth as she considered it. "I think we're going to."
Everypony began laughing at that, even Trixie. The comment wasn't all that funny in and of itself, but given the stress and pain of the last few hours, it felt good to just unwind and laugh, even if only for a little while, forgetting the dire situation they were in and pretending that they were just by themselves in a warm home somewhere.
"Hey, what'd I miss?" a voice called from above the five ponies. Looking up, they saw Raindrops overhead, coming in for a smooth landing beside the other five.
Cheerilee pointed at her. "Cutie mark and embarrassing personal details, now," she ordered.
The other mares, besides Raindrops, burst out into a fresh round of giggles, as Raindrops simply looked between them like they'd lost their minds. "O…kay…" the pegasus ventured. "So we're just going to sit here laughing instead of saving Equestria and the kidnapped ponies, then?"
That managed to kill the mood rather thoroughly. "It was Cheerilee's idea," Carrot Top explained. "We were getting to know each other, rather than thinking about…well. Everything. And it was working."
Raindrops opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a new voice from behind the ponies. "How strange it was to hear laughter in my ears," the deep, though still obviously female, voice said, "when this forest usually brings out ponies' fears. But I found it a pleasant sound though danger presses all around."
The collective mares all turned to look, and found themselves staring at a pony, or at least a being with a pony's shape. Her coat was striped in light and dark gray, standing in stark contrast to the bright golden rings at her ears, around her neck, and around her front right leg. She was wearing a brown, hooded cloak, though the hood was laid down, showing off a mane – striped as she was – that was styled upwards in a tall Mohawk.
"Um…" Trixie ventured. "Hi?"
"This is Zecora," Raindrops said, trotting around her companions to stand next to the newcomer. "And…" she looked around, checking behind Zecora. "Where did…? Did he fall behind?"
"My companion you seek? A good pace he normally keeps," Zecora said. "He remained behind, I'd wager, to…see to a call of nature."
Raindrops nodded at that. "Ah, got it." She looked back to the other mares. "Anyway. This is Zecora, she's a zebra. Apparently she lives in the Everfree."
"A zebra?" Cheerilee asked, eyes wide. "What are you doing in Equestria?"
"My people's traditional shaman test," Zecora said, nodding her head. "I have come here on my spirit quest. Great power did I feel stirring, and so I came here unerring." The zebra grimaced as she glanced upwards. "Though I did not know I sought the sun spirit. You ponies are right to fear it."
"And you live in the Everfree?" Ditzy Doo asked. "How is that even possible?"
Zecora offered a knowing smile. "Compared to the dangers of my homeland, the perils of the Everfree are easy to stand."
"I found her while looking around," Raindrops observed. "Plus her companion. They said they know the way to the palace ruin and they're willing to help us get there."
"Z's willing," a new voice said. "I don't want to go near the place, but no one cares what I think…"
Being the third time somepony had appeared out of nowhere, the gathered mares thought themselves prepared for whoever was trudging through the path covered by melting snow. They were wrong, for several reasons.
He was about half as tall as Lyra, the tallest pony of the group. He was colored purple and green. Specifically, he was covered in purple and green scales. He also walked upright, on two legs, and he was emphatically not a pony, instead a being with a large-eyed head, a mouth full of sharp teeth, two short arms ending in four-fingered hands, and a short tail, with green spines running down his back. Unlike everypony else, he wasn't wearing anything to ward off the cold of the snow, but he didn't seem particularly bothered by it, either.
"Ah," Zecora observed, "in this foreign land he has been my boon companion: I would like to introduce Spike, the baby dragon."
"Hi," Spike said with a wave.
The ponies stared. Spike stared back. After several moments, he started making poses, flexing his muscles. "I know, right?" he asked, waving his brow slightly.
"B…baby dragon?" Lyra observed, trotting forward. "He's…you're…what's a dragon doing in Equestria?"
Spike shrugged. "I dunno."
The ponies stared. Interestingly enough, Zecora was among them.
"What?" Spike asked. "I don't remember what I was like when I was a hatchling. Do you remember what you were like when you were all newborns?"
"Okay…" Cheerilee said. "How about afterward?"
Spike shrugged again, then pointed to Zecora. "Don't remember anything before meeting Z. We were both strangers in a strange land. So we've been hanging out."
Trixie blinked. "And thus was our surrealism quota filled for the day," she observed.
"With due respect to you pony folk," Zecora said, "The sun spirit's freedom is no joke. I do not wish to appear callous, but we should make haste to the ruined palace."
The mares tore their gazes away from Spike, then nodded almost as one. "Alright," Carrot Top said. "Lead on."
"Okay…" Spike said with a sigh, as Zecora and the ponies turned and the latter began to follow the former. "Let's go back to the place filled with all sorts of horrible death traps…"
The melting snow from the unusually warm air was beginning to create mist in the Everfree. For now, it was lying close to the ground, but it was not helping the general eeriness of the place in any way as it rolled over their hooves, obscuring the ground beneath them. Fortunately, however, the six ponies, one zebra, and one baby dragon had a way of distracting themselves.
"…and so that's how I got my cutie mark," Carrot Top finished, the last of them to reiterate her story to Raindrops.
"That's nice," the jasmine-coated pegasus intoned, ruffling her wings slightly.
"So that makes it your turn, then," Cheerilee said. "I'm not going to save Equestria with a pony I don't know anything about."
Raindrops shrugged. "Born in Cloudsdale, loved it when it rained, and I got my cutie mark pretty early since I'd known that all throughout my foalhood. When my brother was born a unicorn my parents and I moved to Ponyville. I joined the weather patrol, and…that's it."
Lyra's ears were twitching and swivling slightly, as though she heard something. "Anypony else hear that?" she asked absentmindedly as Raindrops spoke. When the pegasus finished, however, she looked back to Raindrops, scowling a little. "Oh, come on," she objected. "We pour our bleeding hearts out for everypony, and you expect to get by on that?" She furrowed her brow in thought. "You've got to, like, resent your brother or your parents for making you move from Cloudsdale."
"Nope," Raindrops said. "Ponyville's nice, I like it."
"No weather patrol stories?" Cheerilee tried.
"A few, I guess," she said, again ruffling her wings, "but a lot of them are really technical. Like that time Cloud Chaser made some cirrocumulus undulati when the schedule called for cirrocumulus laconusi, but I'd gotten my part right so when the two cloud sections began overlapping they made an altocumulus lenticularus and caused some virga and microbursts, and Rainbow Dash was actually working that day so me and Cloud Chaser had to work our wings off to cover before she noticed and before the altocumulus lenticularus devolved into an altostratus translucidus – "
"Okay," Trixie interrupted. "Anything that non-pegasi would be able to follow?"
"I'm a pegasus and I couldn't follow that," Ditzy Doo provided.
Raindrops thought a moment. "Nope," she said. "My life is pretty dull, usually. I like it like that."
There was a collective sigh from the remaining ponies at that. "Fine…" Cheerilee groaned. She looked ahead, at Spike and Zecora. The former was sitting atop the back of the latter, keeping his balance with practiced ease "How about you, Zecora?" she asked. "Do you have a cutie mark story? What is yours, anyway?"
Zecora shook her head, and didn't move the cloak that covered her flank aside. "All I have are the stripes you see," she said, "There is no cutie mark on me."
"And dragons don't get them either," Spike noted, as Zecora turned off of the rough path they had been following and began walking into the woods. Everypony followed.
"I'm not the only one who hears that, am I?" Lyra asked. Her ears had gone back to twitching slightly, focused in the direction Zecora was now taking them through the twisted trees.
"Hears what?" Spike asked.
"You've got to have some stories, though," Cheerilee pressed, as she picked up her pace slightly to be trotting next to Zecora. The other five ponies, minus Lyra, also picked up their pace a little, and Zecora seemed to have an extra spring to her step.
"I do not mean to cause offence, but my story I do not wish to dispense," Zecora explained. "My spirit quest is a private affair, and I do not wish to lay it bare."
"That's alright," Ditzy Doo admitted as they came to a wide river. It was probably supposed to be frozen over, but the ice atop of it was melted, and the river itself was fast-flowing and beginning to lap at the edges of its banks due to all the melting snow and ice that was finding its way into it. The low fog that permeated the Everfree stopped at the edge of the river.
Lyra stopped her canter when she reached the river, ears no longer twitching, instead focused forward. "Okay, now I definitely hear music – uh, guys? Guys!"
Come on in, the water's fine…
Lyra dashed forward and in front of the others, as they had not slowed down at the riverbanks, instead heading directly into it. She gasped slightly at the chill of the water – despite the rising heat, the water itself was only just barely above freezing. Her exclamations, coupled with her interposing herself between the others, stopped them in their tracks before they could get too deep, but the ponies and zebra all stared at her strangely.
"Lyra?" Raindrops asked. "You're in the way."
"I'm not gonna try and ford a raging, freezing river," she responded.
…Please oh please, don't decline…
The others blinked, looking down as though seeing the water for the first time. "Stars," Trixie exclaimed, as they all backed out of the river and onto its banks. "How did I not notice that?"
"I dunno," Spike said, looking around. "I was getting worried for a second…and yeah, I definitely hear music, Lyra."
Come on in, the water's fine…please oh please, don't decline…come and dance on the river's bed…
"I don't hear anything," Cheerilee noted, as she began absent-mindedly trotting forward. Lyra blinked, putting herself between Cheerilee and the water. She stared uncomprehendingly at the unicorn for a moment, then shook her head. "We need to get to the other side…"
"…yeah," Raindrops noted as she started forward. Lyra leapt in front of her, hooves up and pushing her back.
"You have wings, you idiot," Lyra noted, as Zecora closed her eyes and began chanting something in a language Lyra didn't understand, while Spike hopped off of her back. "You and Ditzy Doo can just carry us over if – "
"But this is faster…" Ditzy Doo said, eyes wide and a serene look on her face – yet her eyes were also focused forward, as she began trotting into the river. Groaning, Lyra's horn glowed, and she seized Ditzy Doo in a golden aura and pushed her back onto the shore. Then Trixie began trotting forward, forcing Lyra to move in front of her and shove her backwards. The other unicorn stumbled a little, falling down, but was quickly on her hooves again, and in the meantime Carrot Top was wandering forward…
…come on in and join the dead…
"Um, that's creepy," Spike objected, grabbing Carrot Top's tail and digging his feet into the ground. Unfortunately, his small size made little impact. Lyra grabbed Cheerilee with magic and pushed her back, while trying to physically hold Trixie back.
"Zecora!" Lyra shouted at the zebra, the only one besides her and Spike that seemed unaffected, though the zebra remained in place and chanting. "A little help?" She didn't move. Ditzy Doo managed to trot in nearly to her stomach, but Lyra once again resorted to magic, and had to do likewise for Raindrops and Trixie as she moved to put herself directly between Cheerilee and the water, pushing them back.
Come on in, the water's fine…please oh please, don't decline…come and dance on the river's bed…come on in and join the dead…
"Something's wrong with them!" Spike exclaimed. "But how come we're not affected?"
"I think it's some kind of magic song!" Lyra exclaimed as she used telekinesis to hold back all of her friends. It wasn't going to work for long – sweat was already forming on her brow. "Dunno why it's not affecting you, but for me it's 'cause it's poorly harmonized!"
The music stopped suddenly. The five ponies that had been trying to plunge into the freezing waters stopped trying to commit suicide, but remained in a trance, waving back and forth slightly.
There was a splash from behind Lyra, and she turned and found herself face-to-face with some kind of creature that looked like a cross between a pony and a fish. It upper body was mostly the same, with forelegs ending in hooves and a long-snouted face, but rather than a mane, the creature had a long fin travelling down its back, and smaller fins at its fetlocks. Its lower body, meanwhile – the parts that Lyra could see through the water, anyway – consisted of a long, fish-like tail, with a pair of elegant-looking fins in the place of rear-legs. Instead of hair, its body was coated with fine, aquamarine scales, and it had a pair of blood-red eyes. As Lyra watched, two more similar creatures appeared from beneath the river's surface, only slightly different in scale coloration but with yellow and teal eyes, the last of them having pony proportions more in line with a stallion than a mare.
There was one more notable difference between these creatures and normal ponies: their mouths were full of small, sharp teeth. None of them looked happy to see Lyra, either.
"I beg your pardon?" The first one to appear demanded. "Poorly harmonized?"
"What are you?" Lyra asked, one eyebrow rising.
All three of the creatures fixed Lyra with a deadpan look. "We're trying to lure ponies to their deaths by drowning and then eating them," the second one, with yellow eyes, said. "What do you think we are?"
"Sea ponies?" Lyra guessed.
A little bit of winter's chill returned to the Everfree Forest at the glare she got. "This is a freshwater river," the third, teal-eyed creature noted. "And sea ponies are herbivores."
"Sirens!" Yellow Eyes – as Lyra mentally dubbed her – exclaimed. "We're sirens!"
"I thought sirens only lived in the ocean," Spike said from the shore. Then he pointed at Teal Eyes. "And you're a stallion. Sirens are always mares."
"Yes, well," Red Eyes, the first to appear, noted. "Ponies…and dragons I suppose…possess many misconceptions about us – "
"How would we reproduce with only mares?" Teal Eyes asked incredulously.
"Magic?" Spike suggested. Teal Eyes shrugged, conceding the possibility.
" – but back on topic," Red Eyes continued, "What do you mean, poorly harmonized?"
"I mean what it sounds like!" Lyra exclaimed, and jabbed a hoof at Red Eyes. "And I'm lookin' at you, and don't try to deny it I know it's you. You're not syncing up with the other two at all. You're pitched too high and singing a little faster."
"I am not!"
"…actually, I did notice that," Yellow Eyes objected. "I wasn't going to say anything, but…"
Red Eyes glared at her companion. "You're taking the food's side?"
"Hey, yeah, about that…" Spike tried.
The sirens ignored him. "Out of harmony is out of harmony," Teal Eyes noted. "Sorry, but food or not, she's got a point."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were putting on a concert for the river dragon. I thought we were just trying to get lunch. My mistake. Here," she held forward her front hooves. "Slit my veins open, why don't you?"
"We don't have major arteries in our legs," Yellow Eyes pointed out.
"Why do you even have legs?" Lyra asked.
Two of the sirens shrugged, while Red Eyes glared at her companions. "Can we please stop talking to the food and just eat already?" she demanded. Lyra skipped backwards, out of the water, at that. Red Eyes waved her off. "Whatever, you're immune, the dragon and zebra are still immune like last time, but that still gives us five! That's plenty!"
"She gets cranky when she doesn't eat, sorry," Teal Eyes explained, as Red Eyes began to grumble.
"Last time?" Lyra asked, looking to Spike. Zecora had not stopped chanting whatever her protection spell against the siren's song was.
The baby dragon offered a stupid grin and a shrug. "Guess we do have some stories?" he said.
Lyra shook her head as she looked to the sirens. "I'm not going to let you eat my friends," she proclaimed.
"Three on one with you trying to save five," Red Eyes noted. "I'm feeling pretty good about our odds."
"Plus, we've got hunger on our side," Yellow Eyes said. "That's a great motivator."
"I'm trying to save the world," Lyra noted.
"Noble goal and all, but that's impersonal," Teal Eyes philosophized. "You don't really know the whole world, whereas being hungry is a really personal thing and – "
"Stop talking to our lunch and just sing already!" Red Eyes shouted. The three sirens drifted backwards, to the middle of the river – having no problems fighting against the current – and began singing again. Even worse, Red Eyes seemed to of corrected her mistake and was now singing in harmony with the other two. Lyra still proved to be immune, but the other five ponies began trotting forward again.
"Come on in, the water's fine…please oh please, don't decline…come and dance on the river's bed…come on in and join the dead…"
Lyra's closed her eyes and let her horn glow brightly. She shoved the five ponies backwards with telekinesis, but only as a stopgap. Working a significantly more advanced spell, she created a golden orb in front of her. With a pop, the orb burst apart, and Lyra caught her lyre as it began to fall, telekinetically bringing it forward as she sat down and began strumming on it, magic pouring from her lyre and over her friends. They stopped in their tracks.
"You're not the only ones who can sing," Lyra proclaimed in verse, "you don't want the kind of pain I'll bring."
The sirens stopped their song once more, staring. Lyra's friends remained motionless behind her. "You're joking," Red Eyes said.
"I just spent three years at Luna's school of magic on a musical scholarship," Lyra explained. "Come on, there's got to be some fish in that river you can eat instead."
"We actually can't eat fish," Yellow Eyes remarked. "Tastes horrible. Actually most seafood. Or river-food, I guess."
"We only eat land animals," Teal Eyes said. "And you ponies are delicious."
"…thanks?" Lyra guessed. "Still. There's got to be something else you guys can eat in the forest. Like a turkey or something, I dunno."
"Maybe," Red Eyes admitted. "But there's a whole feast here now, and who knows how long we'll have to wait for some poor gobbler to wander close enough?"
Lyra plucked a few notes on her lyre. "I'm warning you…"
"You're bluffing," Red Eyes said. "And you can't possibly save all your friends."
"I can try."
"You'll fail."
Lyra played another few notes on her lyre in response.
Red Eyes glared at her. As Lyra watched, her iris' seemed to both expand outwards and shrink inwards, until her eyes were nothing more than a pair of blood-hued orbs. She let a full, sharp-toothed grin show, then began to sing in earnest, not a simple rhyme anymore, but a full song –
"Now I know
"That you think you're so great
"But you're nothing
"But you're nothing
"But you are -
"And I know
"That you don't want to die
"But you're nothing
"But you're nothing
"But you're..."
The five ponies began to slowly trot forward. Lyra's hooves danced across her instrument, golden magic reaching out and slowing their advance, with Spike trying to help as best he could, but the ponies moved inexorably, as the other two sirens – their eyes similarly turning uniform in color – joined in Red Eyes' song.
"So stupid
"You're trying to resist us
"And save them all
"But they're gonna slip away
"You'll lose them all
"Why not just give up now?
"Just stop fighting
"We're sirens and we're hungry
"You can't win –
Lyra interrupted them with a full pull across her lyre, while her horn interceded to amplify its volume several times beyond what should have been possible.
"I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
"I'm telling you right now to just go somewhere else
"Music is my special talent, sirens
"Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!"
The golden threads that grasped her friends swelled in size and intensity. They were pushed backwards, and for the first time the enthralled ponies looked around of their own volition, wide-eyed and panicked at the sight of the sirens and what the sirens were trying to make them do.
The sirens, meanwhile, had been thrown backwards by the force of Lyra's magic-enhanced song, their eyes snapping back to normal and looks of genuine surprise on their face. Glaring, their magical song returned, their magic taking physical form for the first time and lashing out at Lyra.
"Can't you see?
"You cannot keep this up
"We do this every day, fool
"Luring critters to the river
"So we can eat.
"But ponies are so tasty
"We're gonna feast
"Your magic doesn't scare us
"You'll get weak – "
Again, Lyra interrupted them, standing on her two hind legs – somehow keeping balance while doing so – and conjuring up a golden shield to ward off the siren's magical lashes as she countered their continued hypnotic attempts and responded, hooves still dancing across the strings of her instrument.
"I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
"I'm telling you right now to just go somewhere else
"Music is my special talent, sirens
"Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!"
"I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
"I'm telling you right now to just go somewhere else
"Music is my special talent, sirens
"Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!"
The sirens screamed – but still in song – as Lyra countered with magic. Despite her prowess, with three-on-one the red, yellow and teal lashes that were reaching out to her golden shield. Lyra pushed back, however, and tendrils of golden magic began to lash out at the sirens as well. For the first time, fear as well as concern appeared on their faces.
"Maybe give us one or two? To eat?" Red Eyes offered in verse. "You'll still have two, seems like plenty! Agreed?"
"No way!" Lyra responded as she dragged her hoof across her harp. The sirens' magic and her own flared as they battled, then died suddenly, giving out under the strain of constantly being maintained by the two forces. The sirens fell backwards, almost falling under the river's water again. Lyra, on the other hoof, remained standing on her hind legs, magically holding her lyre aloft as she began strumming the same two strings over and over.
"I told you the pain that I could bring.
"But you didn't listen to me.
"You've lost, you've got nothing left.
"But I'm. Still. Here."
Next to Lyra, a ghostly image of her formed, and began echoing that verse, while she continued with the song, and with each verse another Lyra would appear and begin echoing her.
"Just swim away while you still can.
"Find something else to snack upon.
"You've lost, you've got nothing left.
"But I'm. Still. Here."
"You couldn't sing in harmony
"Without my help, where would you be?
"You've lost, you've got nothing left.
"But I'm. Still. Here!"
The sirens shouted in defiance, rising up and magically lifting the water with them – the water in their grasp turning blood red, sickly yellow, and a deep, almost black shade of teal – and surging forward. Lyra didn't budge as the water came on, conjuring up another golden shield and golden tendrils to push it back, as the two competing musical forces dueled. The sirens had seemingly lost the ability to sing in verse at all, instead conjuring with pure vocal power, but Lyra actually turned that against them, incorporating it into her song as her chorus of illusions continued to sing as well.
"I told you the pain that I could bring!
"But you didn't listen to me!
"You've lost, you've got nothing left!
"But I'm. Still. Here!"
"I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
"I'm telling you right now to just go somewhere else
("Still! Here...!")
"Music is my special talent, sirens
"Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!"
("Still! Here...!")
"I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
"I'm telling you right now to just go somewhere else
("Still! Here...!")
"Music is my special talent, sirens
"Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!"
("Still! Here...!")
"I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
"I'm telling you right now to just go somewhere else
("Still! Here...!")
There was a golden flash. The wave of water was thrown backwards, but the sirens remained floating in the air, grasped firmly in Lyra's magical aura. They had stopped singing, their legs and tails and fins flailing, but Lyra only smirked before tossing them upstream as hard as she could. They landed with a splash some thirty feet away, quickly surfacing and staring wide-eyed at Lyra Heartstrings.
"Music is my special talent, sirens
"And now that I have won, you'd better swim off home!"
The sirens stared for only a moment more, before disappearing beneath the river's water, rushing away. This was probably for the best, as it meant they didn't see Lyra collapse to the muddy riverbank moments later.
